Bitcoin DeFi protocol Babylon to airdrop 600 million BABY tokens in upcoming token generation event

The Babylon Foundation, an entity focused on supporting Babylon's Bitcoin staking protocol, released details for its BABY token generation event that will airdrop distribution to early supporters. BABY will have a total supply of 10 billion tokens at launch. This circulating supply could increase over time as the protocol mints new coins to reward stakers, according to the tokenomics scheme published on April 3.

Future governance proposals may alter BABY’s inflation through the Babylon Genesis Chain, a Bitcoin Secured Network developed by the Bitcoin staking provider.

The Babylon Foundation allocated about 6% of the total launch supply to early adopters across five categories, including phase-1 stakers (30 million BABY), base phase-1 stakers (335 million BABY), phase-2 transition bonus (200 million BABY), Piooner Pass NFT holders (300 BABY per NFT) and GitHub contributors (5 million BABY, based on commits).

Additionally, the foundation earmarked 15% of BABY’s supply for community incentives as well as 18% each for ecosystem building and operations. Advisors will receive 3.5%, the team 15% and early private-round investors 30.5%. All allocations, excluding community incentives and airdrops, are subject to vesting schedules between three and four years.

Babylon has not yet confirmed when the airdrop will begin. Some exchanges, including OKX, launched pre-market futures listings on Thursday. 

Babylon Genesis Chain

Beyond acting as an economic reward, BABY will serve as the native token for transaction fees, governance participation, staking and security on the Babylon Genesis Chain. The Babylon Genesis Chain combines Bitcoin’s “crypto-economic security” with Babylon’s proof-of-stake staking protocol for a new network class dubbed the “Bitcoin Secured Network” or BSN.

The BSN’s dual staking model will integrates both BABY and BTC, enabling users to lock up either token for network security. “Both Bitcoin stakers and BABY stakers contribute security and receive BABY rewards. This mechanism promotes long-term participation, supporting a sustainable security framework for the Babylon ecosystem,” per a Thursday blog post.

Launched in August 2024, Babylon enables bitcoin holders to deposit their assets and earn rewards by securing other blockchains. The protocol has a confirmed user deposit of over 51,906.76 BTC, worth over $4.2 billion, according to a Babylon dashboard. Last May, Babylon raised $70 million in a funding round led by Paradigm. Hashkey Capital and Polychain Capital also participated in the fundraiser. This came after Babylon secured $18 million in capital during a Series A round.